Pursue Balance is a non-profit organization that is made possible by your generous support.
We offer a Growth Grant Program that makes funding available to create opportunities that allow people to strive towards reaching their full potential. The application will ask applicants to detail their financial need and the way in which fulfilling this request may bring the applicant a meaningful experience and closer to living their life in personal and environmental balance.
Granting guidelines and criteria may be downloaded from our Growth Grants Page. Please submit all applications by emailing to grants@pursuebalance.org. (Alternatively, you may mail them to PO Box 6819 Jackson, WY 83002.)
Applications will be accepted no later than 5pm on August 14th, 2009 (5pm mountain standard time). Applications will be reviewed by a committee and grants will be awarded mid-October and funding sent out on November 1, 2009.
Around the Block or ATB is Pursue Balance's signature fundraiser bike ride for the Growth Grant Program. This year the ATB will be held on August 1, 2009. Participants ride from Wilson to Victor to Swan Valley back to Wilson. All the proceeds from registration fees go directly to the Growth Grant Program to help link community members with the Grant Program.
Our Earth Week events and programs had the following successes:
• A Locavore's Night Out- over 350 participants enjoying a home-cooked meal made within a 100 mile radius.
• Spotlight Conversation - over 60 participants engaged in a dialogue and created momentum for action around conducting a community GHG emissions audit, sustainability Action Plan, and opportunities for renewable energy projects.
• Green Drinks - 50 plus participants toasted to a new era for sustainability on Earth Day.
• Green=Green Panel - 25 participants learned from Teton Gravity Research, Mad River Float Trips and Eco-Tour Adventures about how their business can go green and realize green ($).
• Film Screening - 350 plus participants enjoyed the film "The Thin Green Line" about frogs and their importance in our eco-systems.
• Bag 2 Differ - 2,500 canvas bags were handed out to every student in Teton County. Along with the bag distribution children viewed a wonderfully produced short film about reducing plastic bag use in our community.
• ECO-Fair - 80 vendors and over 2,000 Fair participants celebrated sustainability and our community with food, kid's activities, music, and camaraderie.
• KC Golden Keynote Talk - 65 people listened to KC talk about where we are and shared hope for creating a world that can be truly sustainable.
Overall we were able to touch over 5,000 people in our community with the Earth Week activities and programs. Thank you for helping to make this happen.
Click here to view our upcoming 2009 Earth Week Schedule of Events! We invite you to taste, talk, and try on all things sustianable with us during this week of celebration of the Earth and Community. We are happy to chat with you about any of these events, or look for more information in the Jackson Hole News and Guide's Stepping Out section that will talk in detail about each event and expereince. Join us! It is free, fun, and full of sunshine - even if it is snowing or sleeting outside.
I had the opportunity today to participate in the Community Foundation of Jackson Hole's workshop entitled "Reality Check" and then this evening was at a relationship seminar we sponsored featuring Sharon Walls. Both events- although very different- reminded me how much I love the people of our community. At both events I realized how people in Jackson really want to find the ways in which they can make a difference- through addressing the tough issues of organizational sustainability or the very personal issues of having a healthy relationship. People in our community are working to make life more fulfilling for themselves and each other and that is the community I love and adore. Thanks to each of you for making this such a special place to live!
In the past year, the Teton Sustainability Project and Pursue Balance have merged to provide more unified services and programs to the community. In addition, we are honored to partner with the Jackson Whole Grocer for the 2009 ECO-Fair to expand what we can offer the community related to "simple and sustainable living in the Tetons."
We hope you can join us this year to continue building on the celebration and community we all search for in the Tetons.
2009 Earth Week begins on April 21st with the Locavore's Night Out and concludes on April 25th with the ECO-Fair.
I have been working on finding the motivation to keep healthy choices in my life during the cold dark winter. It is so easy to eat a delicious browney or watch a movie instead of going to the gym. So what to do.
I have been to a lot of meetings about change lately. During each of these meetings I have noticed that there is a both a sense of fear as well as a sense of excitement and hope. The fear is obvious- it is easy to become scared about most anything right now- climate change, loss of jobs, closing of well-established businesses, foreclosures- every day we hear it on the news and from friends and family.
December 2, 2008: Show 1 interviews Nancy Taylor Green Building Consultant and author of the book Go Green. Learn from Nancy about how to utilize green building materials.
December 16, 2008: Show 2 interviews Heather Overholser, Director of the Jackson Community Recycling Center. Heather will tell us all about what can and cannot be recycled and give some interesting tidbits about the whole recycling process.
January 6, 2009: Show 3 interviews Tim ODonoghue and April Hankey from the Jackson Hole Chamber of Commerce. They will talk to us about sustainable business practices and how businesses can realize savings while going green.
January 20, 2009: Show 4 interviews Steve Michel, Director of Sustainability at the Jackson Whole Grocer. Steve talks to us about the Natural Step program and how the Jackson Whole Grocer has integrated the program into their store.
Lights Off! airs on the first and third Tuesdays of every month at 3:00pm Jackson Hole Community Radio, KHOL 89.1. Join us for more interviews, news, and oddball discussions.
Discuss these ideas and more as Teton Area 10x10 of Pursue Balance and Teton County Library, with funding from 1% for the Tetons, host three meetings of a 10x10 Book Club on the last Tuesday of each month. First up will be discussion leader and Director of Jackson Community Recycling, Heather Overholser, on Tuesday, January 27 from 5:30-6:30 p.m. for a conversation about "Cradle to Cradle" written by architect William McDonough and chemist Michael Braungart.
Join us on January 6th at 3:00 on KHOL 89.1 when we have a chance to ask the Chamber about how businesses can go green and get green $$$$$$$$!!!!! Tim O'Donoghue and April Hankey will let us know what the Chamber has cooking for sustainability.
